(Bloomberg) -- Chinese shares were headed for their best weekly showing in a month, aided by hopes that authorities may unveil stronger growth stimulus when a key legislature meeting concludes Friday.
The onshore CSI 300 Index was up 0.3% as of 10:26 a.m. Beijing time. The benchmark is up 6.9% for this week, following a 3% surge in the previous session that was its biggest in nearly three weeks.
There are expectations that the week-long meeting of China’s top legislators will bring added policy support to counter the threat of tariffs under a second Donald Trump presidency. Market mood also brightened on Thursday after October’s robust exports helped offset concerns over slow investment growth and weak consumption.
“Although the threat of more tariffs looms with Trump 2.0, it may also accelerate China’s stimulus rollout, with China putting more of the dry fiscal powder to use now that the election result is confirmed,” said Marvin Chen, a Bloomberg Intelligence strategist.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the equivalent of parliament in China, is scheduled to conclude its meeting Friday, with an official readout expected.
The prospect of an expanded trade war during the US president-elect’s second term — even if it falls short of the threatened 60% tariff — is raising expectations for greater stimulus going into next year, as China braces for a new era of protectionism that could put harsher constraints on trade.
Such expectations have rekindled China’s stock rally, which lost steam in recent weeks following an initial surge in late September that came on the back of the central bank’s stimulus blitz. The CSI 300 surged nearly 35% from a September low through Oct. 8, but has fallen about 2% since.
Economists at Standard Chartered Plc and Macquarie project China’s growth would suffer a hit of as much as two percentage points should Trump follow through on his campaign vow to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 60%.
Showing a sense of urgency, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday repeated a call for officials to step up efforts in the remaining two months of the year, so as to meet the nation’s annual economic targets.
In another sign of policy support, Chinese regulators told the nation’s banks to lower the rates they pay on deposits from other financial institutions to free up funds to boost the economy, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
(Updates with analyst comment and more details)
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